As Long as Trees Exist, a Humongous Fungus Will Keep Growing theatlantic.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from theatlantic.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
There's a 3 1/2-square mile specimen in eastern Oregon that weighs 35,000 tons and could possibly be the biggest living thing on Earth, according to researchers at the University of Utah. It caused $1.5 million worth of damage to Georgia's peach trees in only two years. Armillaria ostoyae - the scientific name of the fungus - infects and kills 600 different species of woody plants and it is very difficult to kill this fungus.
With massive webs of probing black tentacles extending for miles below the ground, the Armillaria group of fungi includes some of the largest known organisms on our planet.
A fungus spanning more than three square miles is sucking the life out of trees in Oregon. University of Utah researchers say it’s possibly the largest living on organism on earth.
University of Utah scientists have studied a 3 1\/2-square mile specimen in eastern Oregon that weighs 35,000 tons and is possibly the largest living organism on earth.